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Judge Otton says UCI is kicking USADA allegations into the long grass

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Judge Otton says UCI is kicking USADA allegations into the long grass

The first public hearing into the Lance Armstrong doping scandal descended into sharp exchanges in London on Friday over the lack of disclosure of documents by the sport's governing body.

What the UCI claims is an independent panel was set up by the UCI itself to investigate accusations that UCI leaders covered up suspicious doping tests given by Armstrong during his 1999-2005 run of Tour de France victories and unethically accepted donations from him totaling $125,000.

The three-person panel expressed fears Friday that the process, which was expected to produce a report by June, is being stalled.

"It just amazes me that we have had absolutely no documents whatsoever," former British Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson said to the UCI's lawyer. "When are we going to get the ... files?"

Ian Mill, representing the UCI, said the "entire process has been derailed" because the panel is demanding a truth-and-reconciliation process and amnesty to encourage witnesses to come forward with doping information without fear of retribution.

"An amnesty is one thing, getting to the bottom and determining how the US Postal Service team operated without detection or sanction ... causes us considerable anxiety," Mill explained.

"That truth-and-reconciliation process is not capable of being done with the timetable and it may or may not be done under the auspices of this inquiry," Mill added. "We can do something which we understand you don't want to do ... a limited inquiry taking place in April."

The panel is unhappy that it is being asked to effectively suspend itself and not hold its first full hearing until later in 2013 and issue its report in a year. UCI President Pat McQuaid is due to stand for re-election in September.

British judge Philip Otton, who heads the panel, accused the UCI of trying to use the delay in the truth-and-reconciliation process as "an excuse to kick the USADA allegations into the long grass."

"We're not trying to kill this inquiry. We set you up," Mill claimed later in a heated exchange that led to him being told by Otton: "Please do not raise your voice."

"We are not the bad guys here," Mill claimed. "We have a finite amount of money available to us ... we are not like a football body."

Otton explained it was "blindingly obvious" that there was immense public interest in determining why and how Armstrong's US Postal Service team was able to engage in systematic doping for seven years without any detection or sanction.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France champion titles after a 1000 page USADA report on doping in cycling was published. The report includes testimony from former teammates and revealed what it called "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."